1 Kings 3:3 (NKJV)
“And Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of his father David, except that he sacrificed and burned incense at the high places.”

We do not preach dogmatism or legalism, but we teach God’s expectations for His people. We are not calling for perfectionism, but for a vision of living according to God’s righteous desires for His saints.

Loving the Lord with all your heart, soul, might, and strength has remained God’s primary law and objective for His Church. Everything else must derive from this all-consuming and all-embracing expectation of God.

Love for God that has conditions and limitations is contaminated love. He desires a love that is free from all impurities, and only such love can offer a worship that He can accept. Loving God is the summary of what our faith should be about.

When we love God yet tolerate competing loves, those competing loves corrupt our love for God. As Jesus said, we cannot love two masters. Satan is so cunning and sneaky and specializes in introducing little foxes to pollute our pure love for God. We must be vigilant.

Look at Solomon. The Bible says that he “loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of his father David,” and then added, “except that he sacrificed and burned incense at the high places.” Indeed, Solomon loved the Lord, but he had an “except” in his life.

The NLT renders that verse this way: “Solomon, too, offered sacrifices and burned incense at the local places of worship.” It means that Solomon joined others who also loved the Lord and worshipped at local idol temples.

Burning incense and offering sacrifice is worship. The whole struggle and fight is all about worship. The eternal clash is all about what will occupy man’s worship. God is demanding complete and uncompromising worship. Satan wants to steal from that.

Know that this is the “fight of faith” that Paul talked about. We have turned our fight into a series of smaller, inconsequential battles, but the real issue at stake is worship. If we will succeed to bring our God joy, there must be no “excepts” in our worship.

Yes, I know that so many people are worshipping so many other gods. The god of this world, unfortunately, has craftily blinded the eyes of many so that they cannot help but give divided worship. We cannot afford to be like them. We are different.

Fight the good fight of faith. Fight for yourself, and fight for others. Fight to offer pure worship untainted and unshared. Help others discover their idols and, thereafter, also offer pure worship. This is God’s mandate for us, His pilgrims.

@ChineduOranye
RestlessPilgrim.org